Talk:I'm a Good Girl, I Am/@comment-26103725-20150311040623
This is just a general point I’ve been thinking about over the course of the season: As the show has gone from one season to the next, new mysteries have come up, the plot has developed, and the story has stayed alive. Everyone’s got their issues—lack of answers, boring subplots, too many new characters, etc. In my mind, though, none of that is so important anymore. Of course, the mystery and the plot of this show are crucial. But I think it’s safe to say that the characters and the relationships between the characters are equally important, and at this point in time, I think some of those characters or really the relationships between those characters are a complete mess. When you look at the relationship between Alison DiLaurentis and the four girls—both as individuals and as a group—I think the show has been really frustrating. Every new situation is just adding more fuel to the very complicated fire that has been burning from the very beginning. Put aside all of the plot developments—fake deaths and kidnappings, going to prison, the trial. Whether you think she is innocent or guilty, good or bad, right or wrong, friend or foe, deserving or not, every decision that the characters on this show have made when it comes to Ali revolve very much around the person who she was when we saw her back at the very beginning. As we saw in the early seasons, Alison DiLaurentis was horrible. Her deliberate, calculated, scathing remarks were nothing less than bullying at its worst. She made snarky comments to Emily about her sexual orientation, then completely teased her by showing interest and then pulling back. She made sure Spencer never followed through on standing up to her authority, resorting to desperate measures to keeping Spencer quiet, for her own good. She taunted and manipulated a very vulnerable Hannah about her weight, and then caused her to go down a very dangerous path, which is not something a good friend—at least one as smart as Ali—would ever do. And she totally toyed around with Aria, holding Byron’s affair against her. Yet now, all of these unresolved issues that are all the foundation for the lack of trust that played a part in landing Ali where she is, are all fogged up with more and more plot points. Yes, I like the story, but I also kind of don’t care about Mona, or Mike, or Varjack, or Andrew. Don’t get me wrong, I think they’re interesting. But I think we lost focus of relationships so fundamental to the show. I mean, between the fake kidnapping, the girls putting Ali in jail, the trial, and whatever is about to go down, are we ever going to see Alison DiLaurentis acknowledge all of the horrible things she did to these girls that made them distrust her in the first place? These girls are still broken over it, and if not broken, it’s still unresolved, and Ali is still a major player in their lives. Sorry, now I’m being all repetitive. This ended up being a long post. But my point is that at the end of the day I just want to see the core relationships on the show addressed and developed. I don’t care if there’s a happy ending or not (well I kinda sorta do but you know what I mean). I just want scenes—and a whole sense—that we’re just jumping from early high school drama to legal drama to the next venture, and that the characters are coming to a deeper understanding of each other and who they are and their mistakes. Really mostly will Ali every just like apologize. I know she kind of did when she said all that I thought I was protecting you stuff but that is so not good enough. Ugh. Am I the only one who is so frustrated by this?